BHUBANESWAR: The BJP on Wednesday lambasted the State Government for its failure to mitigate the miseries of Titli-affected families of Gajapati and Ganjam districts.
“Though it has been nearly two months since cyclone Titli hit Gajapati and Ganjam, affected people of several villages are yet to receive the promised financial assistance from the State Government,” said BJP MLA Pradip Purohit after visiting the two districts.
Showing video clips of the suffering of people in some of the villages affected badly by the cyclone and the consequent floods, Purohit said many families of Burutal under Patrapur block of Ganjam district are still living in makeshift houses.
Similar is the situation in Mada village under Kionpur panchayat of Rayagad block in Gajapati district. Severely affected by the recent floods, the villagers are taking shelter in the local school.
Purohit, who was part of the seven-member fact finding team of BJP that visited the cyclone-hit villages on Tuesday, told a media conference that there is hardly any improvement in the situation in the two districts. While some of the families continue to live in damaged houses, others are living in Anganwadi centres and school buildings.
With the district administration taking no initiative for their rehabilitation, most of them have started reconstructing their houses on their own, he said.
The BJP legislator said 15 families of Mada village, who lost their ration cards in the calamity, have been deprived of ration due to administrative apathy.
Villagers told the team that two children - Sunil Rout (13) and Purnima Mandal (7) - are missing since the calamity struck the region. Though the two children are feared dead, the local administration is not taking any initiative to trace them. As a result, families of the two kids are deprived of compensation as admissible under the relief code. The villagers complained that they are yet to receive any assistance as promised by the Government for building houses, Purohit added.
Senior BJP leader and MLA Rabi Nayak, another member of the team, said the State Government’s relief was limited to 50 kg rice, 2.5 litre of kerosene and cash assistance of `1000 per family. Most of the people of the affected villages complained that relief was distributed on party line and there was large-scale irregularities in distribution of polythene and rice, he added.